Employers and business entities must pay payroll tax in relation to wages paid to its employees. In addition, such entities must pay payroll tax in relation to contractors engaged under “relevant contracts”.

The ATO has taken an aggressive approach on non-arm’s length income (NALI) for a number of years now, both in its public documents and via its audit teams. This has culminated in an approach that puts a high expectation on SMSF’s in relation to proving arrangements are on an arm’s length basis – in particular, in relation to benchmarking such arrangements.

Alicia Hill has joined Sladen Legal to head our dispute resolution and litigation practice.

Revenue NSW has determined that foreign surcharges breach international tax treaties. Will other revenue offices follow suit? How do you ensure that your trust is not a foreign trust?

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme operates in Australia to fill labour gaps in rural and regional areas.  Approved employers participating in the PALM Scheme should be aware of the recent reforms and how these changes will affect PALM Scheme regulation in Australia.

In the recent decision of Geelong Turf Company Pty Ltd and Commissioner of Taxation [2023] AATA 1718, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) upheld super guarantee charge (SGC) assessments issued by the Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) and refused to remit the 100% SGC Part 7 penalties.

The second tranche of workplace relations reforms have now received Royal Assent, bringing into force the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Protecting Worker Entitlements) Act 2023 (Cth) (Entitlements Act) on 1 July 2023. It is important that employers are aware of the changes and how these changes will impact the workplace.

The recent interest rate rises will result in significant increases in the LRBA safe harbour interest rates, and the Division 7A interest rate, for the 2023/24 year.  The interest rates will be:

• LRBA real estate safe harbour interest rate – 8.85% (was 5.35%)

• LRBA listed share safe harbour interest rate – 10.85% (was 7.35%)

• Division 7A interest rate – 8.27% (was 4.77%)

Sladen Legal is proud to announce two well-deserved promotions effective 1 July 2023.

Treasury has release proposed legislative changes to the non-arm’s length expences (NALE) rules. While they are not as bad as the initial proposal to take NALE at a rate of 225%, they are still not ideal.

The ATO’s attacks on SMSFs conducting property development continues! The ATO has released Taxpayer Alert TA 2023/2 (the Alert) confirming that the ATO will review arrangements where related entities of a SMSF are conducting a property development (or including where property development is undertaken on SMSF owned assets) and where a special purpose vehicle (SPV) is used. The SPV being a company or trust which will be a related party to the SMSF through which generally a member of the SMSF may provide property development services to the SMSF for a commercial arm’s length fee and acquire and manage building materials used for the development.

The Full Federal Court in the BBlood appeal found for the ATO on section 100A and the taxpayer dividend stripping (albeit on a technical, non-substantive basis).

The 100A analysis was limited to ‘tax avoidance purpose’ with the Full Court holding that, in certain circumstances, the purpose of advisors can be relevant.

The 2023-2024 Victorian State Budget was delivered by the Victorian Government on 23 May 2023.

It is well known that Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 can apply to distributions or benefits provided by a company to a shareholder or associate, or a company that has an unpaid present entitlement from a trust.

In our previous article, we discuss Revenue NSW’s announcement that it has determined that NSW surcharge purchaser duty and surcharge land tax are inconsistent with international tax treaties entered into by the Australian Federal Government and certain countries (Treaty Countries).

On 29 May 2023, Revenue NSW has updated its list of Treaty Countries to now include India, Japan, Norway and Switzerland.

The Full Federal Court, in the decision of JMC Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [2023] FCAFC 76, has effectively found that a right to delegate (unless such right is a sham) means a person will be a contractor (and not an employee) and won’t be engaged principally for their labour.

The Victorian State Budget for the 2023-2024 year (Budget) brings with it a range of state taxation measures aimed at reigning in the Victorian Government’s surging debt, currently projected at $135.4 billion for the 2023-2024 tax year and set to grow to an “eye-watering” $171.4 billion in the 2026-2027

Discovering that distributions have been made to an invalid beneficiary may only be the beginning of your problems.

As seen in Part 1 of our article on the case of Williams v Williams, this is the latest of a long line of cases that have found that a binding death benefit nomination (BDBN) was not binding. However, the case also is an important decision in relation to when the Court will remove an SMSF trustee.

In the case of Williams v Williams, the Supreme Court of Queensland has determined that a binding death benefit nomination (BDBN) was not binding on the basis that it was not provided to the trustees of the applicable self managed superannuation fund (SMSF).